Near Boston, a Library School authorities Stock with only E-Books
A New England prep school - the manicured lawns, the no-expenses-spared laboratories, classrooms were there seem to be more teachers and students, the libraries with no books - actually, what was that last one again? The Cushing Academy near Boston did boast of the best library school students anywhere have ever seen - 20,000 volumes of poetry, novels, scientific works, in a lavish library edifice that has stood for more than a hundred years now. But, having put together that impressive collection of educational material, the authorities there have finally given up fighting for the physical printed letter. They are giving away every last one of those books, to pave the way for what they feel is a better way to learn, the searchable e-book.
The very fact that a school should be denying its students a reading experience with physical books would fill some with alarm. But the school isn't trying to ban books at all like the plot in the novel Fahrenheit 451 about a land where books were banned because books encouraged the very threatening idea that there was something better in this world than simple hedonistic enjoyment. On the contrary, they are trying to create a learning environment for their children, where reading will be easier than it is with physical books. They are building a new digital library in its place. The library will be stocked with the latest in ebook readers, laptops, and other high-tech learning devices. This will be a virtual library that will have access not just to 20,000 books, but to millions. The way the parchment scroll made way for the printed book, centuries ago, the feeling is, that books will need to make way for the searchable e-book. When there used to be books at the library, school children never actually borrowed them, a situation any school librarian has experienced. In the digital age, children apparently, just don't like the feeling of a physical book.
But perhaps this is a good idea after all. A physical collection of books is only available to a small number of people at a time. Digital copies can be made out at will. Of course, buying or renting e-books costs a lot of money; but at a place like the Cushing Academy where money is often no object, this does make more sense. But depending entirely on e-books will not do any good, until most books are digitized. Most physical books suffer from other shortcomings. A library will have a couple of copies of any book; on assignment night, they will almost always be out; books need a lot of space to keep, and not all publishers sell in all regions. E-books will have fewer such restrictions. But as everyone saw with Google's digitization effort, no publisher likes to see their books handled without their permission. E-books have limits of their own therefore. However there is such a thing as piracy, and putting a scanned book online is far easier than distributing photocopies. Of course all that is illegal. But when it comes to a library school children will have to come away empty-handed from, what could be illegal?
A New England prep school - the manicured lawns, the no-expenses-spared laboratories, classrooms were there seem to be more teachers and students, the libraries with no books - actually, what was that last one again? The Cushing Academy near Boston did boast of the best library school students anywhere have ever seen - 20,000 volumes of poetry, novels, scientific works, in a lavish library edifice that has stood for more than a hundred years now. But, having put together that impressive collection of educational material, the authorities there have finally given up fighting for the physical printed letter. They are giving away every last one of those books, to pave the way for what they feel is a better way to learn, the searchable e-book.
The very fact that a school should be denying its students a reading experience with physical books would fill some with alarm. But the school isn't trying to ban books at all like the plot in the novel Fahrenheit 451 about a land where books were banned because books encouraged the very threatening idea that there was something better in this world than simple hedonistic enjoyment. On the contrary, they are trying to create a learning environment for their children, where reading will be easier than it is with physical books. They are building a new digital library in its place. The library will be stocked with the latest in ebook readers, laptops, and other high-tech learning devices. This will be a virtual library that will have access not just to 20,000 books, but to millions. The way the parchment scroll made way for the printed book, centuries ago, the feeling is, that books will need to make way for the searchable e-book. When there used to be books at the library, school children never actually borrowed them, a situation any school librarian has experienced. In the digital age, children apparently, just don't like the feeling of a physical book.
But perhaps this is a good idea after all. A physical collection of books is only available to a small number of people at a time. Digital copies can be made out at will. Of course, buying or renting e-books costs a lot of money; but at a place like the Cushing Academy where money is often no object, this does make more sense. But depending entirely on e-books will not do any good, until most books are digitized. Most physical books suffer from other shortcomings. A library will have a couple of copies of any book; on assignment night, they will almost always be out; books need a lot of space to keep, and not all publishers sell in all regions. E-books will have fewer such restrictions. But as everyone saw with Google's digitization effort, no publisher likes to see their books handled without their permission. E-books have limits of their own therefore. However there is such a thing as piracy, and putting a scanned book online is far easier than distributing photocopies. Of course all that is illegal. But when it comes to a library school children will have to come away empty-handed from, what could be illegal?